RE: Time Window
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: A rewrite of the original Time Window: After a certain invention overloads, Jay, Cole, Kai, and Zane find themselves 30 years into the future! Now, with the help of the future Nya, Cyrus Borg, and two choice descendants, the ninja must connect pieces of the past to get back home. But why does it feel like something important is missing? [TV series bias][inconsistent updates]
1. Blood Sharpens Bonds

_**Some time in the future…**_

The only sound in the empty field was the crunching of freshly laid snow. As far as Kai knew, he was alone and – even more important – he wasn't being followed. He hated every reason why he was here. The worst part was that he had to explain everything when he got home, and where on earth would he even begin?

Tonight was such a beautiful night- not a cloud in sight and the full moon shining bright on the snow to guide the way. What stopped him from admiring it a bit more was the silhouette of Lloyd Garmadon on the horizon. The Green Ninja was bent over a small basket, tending to it in a soft, but somber manner as Kai came over to him.

"You don't have to do this." Kai reminded him. "There has to be another way."

"There isn't." Lloyd replied in a calm, quiet voice as he made sure the bundle was still warm and comfortable. Giving the small bundle a small smile, Lloyd then brought out a Serpentine fang on onto a long silver chain. "You're the only one I can trust to do this."

Kai wasn't quite listening at this point- eyeballing the fang with some measure of unpleasantness. The duo remained in silence as Lloyd twisted off a top portion of the fang, revealing the inside to be hollow. Lloyd then handed the fang to Kai before pulling out a small kunai from his belt. Motioning for Kai to move the fang under Lloyd's wrist, the Green Ninja then cut himself and let the blood drip into the hollow fang. He waited until his blood congealed before carefully taking the fang from Kai. The Master of Fire let out a shaking breath as he took the kunai from Lloyd and held out his own wrist.  
Once Kai's blood congealed, Lloyd replaced the top of the Serpentine fang- taking care to make sure that it was closed completely.

"As brother sharpens brother, blood sharpens bonds." he said in a firm tone, despite no one else being there but them, as he held the fang high enough that the moon cast a soft glint across it. "With this promise, her future will be certain and her protection sound."

"You know, she wouldn't need to be protected if you would just let us come with you." Kai nervously joked before looking at Lloyd. But the Green Ninja refused to answer. Instead, he gave the fang to his friend and started to make his leave.

"You know I'll never forgive you for this!" Kai shouted. "And neither will she when she finds out!"

Hearing this halted Lloyd dead in his tracks.

"I wouldn't expect you to." were the last words of the Green Ninja before disappearing into the night. If Kai knew what was going to happen, he would have tried harder to stop Lloyd, but for now other things needed his attention.

Kai moved to the basket that Lloyd left behind and bent down the get a better look at the bundle. Still asleep- and completely unaware of the events that had transpired. Moving a bit of the blanket to get a good look at the bundle's face, Kai realized with a horrible pit that she looked a lot like Lloyd.

"You deserve better than this Min..." the ninja mumbled to himself as he picked up the basket. The child didn't stir, and with a heavy sigh from Kai, he started to walk home with Lloyd's only daughter.

. . .

_**Many, many years later…**_  
There were about three things that Minerva Florence was sure about herself: She was an orphan, she wasn't allowed to fight- verbally or physically, and (coincidentally enough) she no longer had an adult guardian to not tell her to fight- verbally or physically. It took her a good ten months before she realized that she could do the one thing she was never allowed to do. Since then, she came to realize two more things about herself: she preferred a reserve grip and Monty had obviously never been told he couldn't fight with weapons like she had been.

"Let's go over the routine again." Monty callously told her as he tossed a bo staff her way. "Remember your footing- when you get worked up, you tend to misjudge your steps."

"Right." Mina agreed with a nod as she got into her preparation stance. But Monty didn't start the routine; instead he glared at her until she picked up on it.

"What?" she questioned.

"Your thumb." came the reply. "If you insist on holding a bo staff like a katana, the least you could do is remove your thumb from the base."

"Huh?" the young teen questioned before looking down at the staff. Sure enough, her thumb rested at the base of the staff. A bit annoyed at such an amateur mistake, Minerva changed her hand position a bit before getting back down to business.

"_Now_ are we ready?" she asked him. The stoic, nerd-like Montgomery Walker gave a small shrug of indifference before starting their fight.

Monty held nothing back at his fought with Minerva, using a bo staff of his own to counter her attacks. While dodging a lot of her swipes and jabs, he gave his opinion on each one- none of them were particularly nice.

"Too slow," he informed after she attempted to block one of his hits. "Not even close," he declared after she tried to deliver an upper cut from the left. It was when Minerva tried to hit him up high, leading Montgomery to duck below and give a nasty kick at her legs. "Told you to watch your footing," he told her in a flat tone after she had fallen square on her back. If she wasn't in pain right now, you know she would have had some choice words for him.

"Are we done for today?" Monty asked her, not in the least bit sounding concerned for her hurting back. "I promised Mother I would be back at the junkyard before noon."

Mina didn't answer at first. Instead, she pushed past the pain to get herself back up, taking the bo staff and giving the middle a hard twist. The bo staff now becoming two, Mina prepared herself once more and glared at the older teen in determination.

Giving a snide smirk, Monty noted, "So you had breakfast today. Perfect. I suppose it's time for ranged defense then?"

His answer came in the form of a frustrated growl before Minerva launched herself at him. It didn't phase Montgomery in the slightest, easily being able to bound to another portion of the room to avoid her attack.

"Watch your footing Minerva!" he warned in a stern voice before sending five kunais in Minerva's direction. Dodging three and stopping the other two with her twin staffs, Mina then tried to move closer to Monty's location. However, he had anticipated this, leading him to continuously move across the room out of Minerva's range. To the outside viewer it could have been seen as a game- like siblings playing keep-away.

Unknown to the both of them, the door to the training room started to open.

"Minerva? Montgomery? Are you in here?" the newcomer questioned just as Mina moved in front of the door. Before Monty could truly react, he fired a set of kunais at her without a second thought. Minerva was able to dodge the small projectiles- the newcomer was almost not as lucky, the kunais making their mark on the door frame.

"Mister Cyrus." Montgomery properly greeted. Minerva, who hadn't processed that someone was there until now, wildly spun around to look Cyrus Borg in the eye.

"O-oh my..." Cyrus himself noted as he stared at the kunais, careful to note that Monty had thrown them in a neat line. To the duo he said, "I'm so glad that you missed!"

"I never miss." Monty replied in a dark tone. Hearing this, Cyrus gave a small, nervous chuckle before remembering why he was there.

"Minerva," he said as he addressed the girl, "I have a gift for you."

"Another?" came his less than amused reply. There was even a less than interested raise of her eyebrow.

"This one will be far more interesting than the last," Cyrus promised. "Promise."

Mina looked at Cyrus for a moment before glancing at Montgomery. Every since Minerva started living with Cyrus, he had tried to make her comfortable and offered his sympathy in rather brilliantly well made inventions. The problem was that she didn't care for a single one of them; it wasn't Cyrus's inventions that she wanted, after all.

"Fine." she eventually agreed with an exhausted sigh. "But Cyrus, this _has_ to be the last one. For real this time."

"Understandable." came the agreement. "If it's all the same to you, I believe that after this invention, I will no longer make something new for you; too much time and energy my dear! What this new machine can do will be worth it Minerva, trust me."

Hearing this, Mina and Monty gave each other a wary side glance. What could be so important that Cyrus was so sure that Minerva would like it?

* * *

**A/N: After 3 years I'm finally doing good on what I promised; the rewrite of Time Window! If anyone's read the original, you'd know that toward the end it seemed to be all over the place and didn't make a lot of sense, but I'm changing that right now. This rewrite has an actual set plot! I have notes! AND I'm bringing back some scenes from the original (because I personally loved them). However, I'm sure you've noticed that three OCs are missing; RIP Alice and Cap. Kass wasn't needed, so good riddance, really. As we go on, you'll find that a certain ninja sits out this adventure by circumstance- this is because I really wanted to limit how many characters I had to juggle. Believe it or not, having too many characters can jumble up your story pretty quickly without you realizing it.**

**I'm not sure how long it will take for me to write each chapter, but (like i mentioned earlier) I'm not going in blind this time, so hopefully it will get done faster. It's more of a matter of willpower, you know? Finding the drive to just sit down and write is becoming harder each day...**

**Anyway, if you're coming in fresh or a veteran of the original Time Window, thank you for reading!**


	2. System Overload

Neither of them knew where Cyrus was taking them, so they diligently followed behind while they went down numerous halls that all looked the same.

"Did I really hurt you?" Mina wondered as Monty wrapped his wrist in sports tape.

"Of course not." he scoffed. "I've been helping Mother repair a rather large automation recently, and I'm beginning to suspect the beginning of carpal tunnel syndrome."

"In plain tongue Mont?"

He gave her a hard glare before correcting himself, "My wrist hurts, and it's _not_ because of you." There was a small pause before Monty said, "You are getting better, though. If only you didn't act on impulse so often."

"It looked rather impressive from where I was standing." Cyrus offered. "Not that it was a very good position, really..."

Despite herself, Mina gave a small chuckle of amusement. She quickly stopped when she saw Monty's displeased glance. She still thought it was pretty funny, she just decided to keep it to herself.

"Here we are." Cyrus noted when they came to a door that looked like the rest. Using a keycard to unlock the door, Cyrus then gestured for the teens to go before him. The room was still dark when they entered- Cyrus flipped the switch as he came through the door, revealing to them all the new invention. The bulk of the room was filled with several servers that connected to the main console in back, in the center of the room was a large circular archway.

"It's… a supercomputer." Minerva noted as she folded her arms and glanced in Cyrus's direction.

"With a heavy grade wormhole portal generator." Monty added, now giving Cyrus a concerned look of his own. "What _is_ this thing?"

"This is much more than just a supercomputer and wormhole portal generator," Cyrus proudly told them, "This is the Time Window; a marvelous invention that allows us to see into moments in the past! Here, look, I'll show you how it works."

Monty and Mina didn't stop the old inventor as he used his wheelchair to get to the main console. After inputting several commands, the portal generator started to hum to life; a few moments after that an image started to appear. The three of them stared as the image became clearer, showing a scene from years before with a much younger Cyrus.

"This was the moment I met them, you see." Cyrus told them fondly. It took the teens a moment to realize what he was saying as the Time Window then gave them view of the four they knew quite well: Cole, Zane, Jay, and Kai.

"Hmm..." Monty thought to himself, "Dad had more hair then."

"Compared to what he looks now, it almost looks like Cole doesn't work out anymore." Mina herself noted. "And Zane is practically unrecognizable."

Glad that the duo were admiring his work so far, Cyrus then went on, "As you can see, the Time Window is quite effective- we can see them but they can't see us! But that kind of power shouldn't be used for too long as it strains the space-time continuum, so the Time Window can only be used in moderation. However, that doesn't mean this is the only moment in time we'll be able to view second hand!" and with a few more keyboard strokes, the scene started to change. They were now greeted with good view of a fight between ninja and vermilion warriors- the fight seemed to be nearly over, and not one that was going quite in the ninja's favor.

"Pop quiz Minerva," Montgomery decided, "Before the ninja bring down their hoods, guess who they are and what their element is."

"That's easy." the teen bragged while giving a knowing smirk before turning her attention to the wormhole. She studied the scene as each of the ninja started to cease fighting. She made her first guess when a black suited ninja moved close to the wormhole. "That's Cole, Master of Earth."

"Correct." Monty agreed. "Who else?"

The next ninja to move close enough to the wormhole was dressed in white. "And there's Zane," Minerva told him, "The Master of Ice." That was when she spotted two other ninja, one dressed in a dark blue and the other in a light blue. "Over there's your parents, Jay and Nya, the Masters of Lightening and Water respectively."

"And the red one?"

Minerva looked over at Monty with a cheeky smile before saying, "That's Kai, Master of Fire, and my legal guardian. Or… he was." The sudden reminder cause a pit in Mina's stomach, causing her to clutch the fang shaped pendant that laid on a chain that reached a little below her breast. During sparing matches with Monty, she had it off (or, she did now, because he almost choked her with it to prove a point) but any other time it was on her person at all times. After giving herself a quiet introspection, Minerva looked back up at the wormhole and noted one other ninja that she hadn't seen before.

"Who… who's that?" she asked, pointing to the ninja dressed in green. "I don't recognize him."

"Y-you don't?" Cyrus questioned as he moved closer to her and Monty.

"She wouldn't." Monty confirmed, giving Cyrus a certain glare that indicated the keeping of a secret. Understanding a bit, Cyrus gave a nod to show he got the message. It all went unnoticed by Minerva as she kept her eyes trained to the Green Ninja. When he brought his hood down, everything in her body froze.

She didn't have his eyes. She didn't even have his hair color. All she knew when she saw him was that they were related- she could feel it. As if it were reading her thoughts, her pendant started to feel a bit warmer in her hands. She held it tighter in reaction. No way. There was absolutely no way…

"Minerva, are you alright?"

The sudden sound of Cyrus Borg's concerned voice nearly made the girl jump out of her skin. In a moment of confusion, she looked from Cyrus to Monty and back again.

"I..." she tried to say, but couldn't find the words, "I need to go." and with that she ran through the portal viewer and straight out the door. For a moment, all Cyrus and Montgomery did was stare at the door. It was Cyrus who moved first, giving a small sigh before shutting down the Time Window.

"You waste your intelligence on her." Montgomery coldly told the inventor.

"Why do you think this was the last invention?" came the bemused – but disappointed – sigh. "The stock holders are not happy that I've been focusing my energy on Minerva. I was so _sure _she would enjoy this one, but it only proved to be overwhelming."

"You reminded her of what she's lost." Monty reminded in a cold voice. "Besides, as admirable your efforts were until this point, there is only one person in this world who can find Minerva's happiness, and it is herself."

"I suppose you're right." Cyrus sighed. "I suppose you're right..."

. . .

Minerva wasn't an idiot, she knew that the ones she grew up around were ninjas. Not that any of them were particularly shy about it either- but it lead to one of the bigger frustrations between her and Kai. 'Train me!' She's argue, 'No!' He'd say back, 'I can't allow you to get hurt. It's too dangerous! Yada, yada, yada' and all those other overprotective adult excuses. But there was something about that Green Ninja, something she couldn't shake. In the dead of night (and knowing full well when Cyrus would be asleep), the headstrong teen made her way back to the room holding the Time Window and started the machine up on her own.

She didn't know when in time to start watching, so she went with a time she remember Kai reminiscing about every now and again. Mina sat in a still, attentive silence that she wasn't aware when Montgomery entered the room as well and took a seat next to her.

"Why are you still awake?" she asked him as he got comfortable. "Or still here, for that matter."

"I could ask you the same thing." came her snide answer. When a witty reply didn't come to her quick enough, Mina remained silent as the two of them watched the quiet moments of their predecessors lives pass.

It took some time, but as the two watched Nya earn her true potential, Minerva asked Monty, "Do you think you should have gone with them?"

"No." was his quiet answer. "I haven't unlocked my true potential, and I have yet to see a dragon of any kind fly me anywhere. Even if I was of some use, I still don't know how my powers work or if I can even summon them the way Mother had. I know so many things – about Ninjago, and my history – but I don't know myself, and it's a bit terrifying."

Mina looked at him for a moment before moving a bit closer; she put her head on his shoulder and remained silent. Monty moved his head a bit to give her a curious look before blowing away a strand of her tightly curled hair, then reciprocating the gesture by nestling his head on top of hers. The moment was perfect as the two sat with each other, watching the lives of their predecessors without much care. That is, until Montgomery remembered something.

"Minerva, how long have you had the Time Window operating?"

"I don't know. A few hours, maybe?"

At this, Monty frowned and started to get up, leaving Mina to fall over in surprise.

"Hey!' she declared, moving herself around to see what he was doing. When she realized that he was working to turn the Time Window off, she then started to shout, "Wait! What are you doing?!"

"Did you not hear Cyrus earlier?" Monty questioned back. "The Time Window will overheat if you use it for too long."

"But it was doing just fine!" Mina argued as she tried to get him away from the console. Unfortunately, Monty had a lot more muscle on him that at first appearance and was not an easy obstacle for Mina to try to move. It didn't stop her from trying.

Both of them struggled for control over the Time Window in the next few moments. It was when they both shoved each other in opposite directions when things got complicated- each of them landed on a button that proved to be the last straw. The Time Window started to make an earsplitting whistle before the portal viewer itself (which was still active, mind you) gave a short combustion. At the same time as the combustion, a large burst of energy shot across the room leaving everything in its wake without power. In the aftermath of their fight, both Minerva and Montgomery stood still. After a moment or two Minerva was the first to retort;

"Way to go genius. You broke it."

"Don't bring my IQ into this Minerva." he replied as he tried to turn the Time Window back on again. "And it was _you_ who overloaded it to begin with."

Knowing that arguing wasn't going to help the situation, Minerva held back her tongue as Monty continued to get the Time Window working.

"It looks like the overload caused a power surge in the mainframe." Monty then mumbled, more to himself than Mina. "If there was any damage done from the temporal side of things, we won't know until the Time Window is repaired."

Leaning against the console as if nothing were wrong, Mina then carefully asked, "So, that means…?"

"It _means_," Monty sighed as he turned to look at her, "It's time for you to go back to bed."

With that, the older teen started to leave the room. But Mina didn't move at first. "I'm not a kid." she grumbled under her breath before following him back to the apartments.

**A/N: And there they go- done broke the Time Window in all its glory. Because of it, this chapter is a bit longer than the other, but I wanted to have the inciting incident done in this chapter before we found out what the consequences are.**

**I'm so happy at the response for the first chapter! over 50 views on the first day between FanFiction and Wattpad, and some of you even went back to read some of my older stuff too. Now, I can't stop you from doing that, but you _have_ to understand that anything said in those fics _DO NOT_ effect this one- it's mostly because they were written during the 2 year hiatus before Rebooted, and it's been so long I simply don't remember what happened in those fics. However, if memory serves, the evolution of Monty's character is truly a sight to behold; he's always been Jay and Nya's kid though, it was just his role (and part of his appearance) that has changed the most. It's kinda like he aged, but in reverse xD**

**Anyways, thank you for reading and remember that (as a personal opinion) Cartoon Network once pushed Chima to distract us from Ninjago's (at the time) end.**


	3. 21st Century Ninjas

_**Present day…**_

There was something _really_ cathartic about chasing down a criminal that couldn't actually destroy the world. It was just you, them, and a good cardio workout disguised as a foot chase.

"The perp is roughly five meters from me." Lloyd said into his headset. "Cole, Zane, you would be the closest."

"Got it." the two confirmed.

"Kai and Jay, there's a pathway further up ahead where you can cut them off."

"On it!" the other two agreed. With everyone receiving their orders, the group split up. However, it quickly seemed that the criminal they were after had some spine to them- perfectly avoiding the ninja at every route they took to intercept them. The five of them regrouped to figure out some other plan as they continued to chase after the criminal.

As they ran down an alleyway, a bright light started to shine ahead of them. The light started to take the shape of a ninja-sized wormhole that had some sort of pull to it. Before Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay could stop dead in their tracks, they ended up falling right into it- only Lloyd had the reaction time to stop just inches away from the opening.

"Lloyd, what's going on out there?" Nya demanded through the headset. "We lost the guys' signal!"

Lloyd watched as the wormhole – leaving as fast as it had came – closed within the blink of an eye. Dumbstruck, the Green Ninja said into his headset, "I… I don't think you're going to believe this one Nya..."

While Lloyd was left to figure out he was going to explain this to Nya and PIXAL, the rest of the ninja were sent through time and space itself within the wormhole. Once they reached the appropriate time, the four were ejected out with enough force to knock them down to their knees in surprise.

"What just happened?" Jay questioned, being the first to recover.

"My scanners indicate that this alleyway is much older than the one we were traversing through earlier," Zane informed them. "And yet, it still appears to be the same alleyway? It doesn't make any sense..."

"Well, we're not going to find anything out by just standing here." Cole decided before working his way up a fire escape. The other ninja looked at each other and shrugged before doing the same. That was when they were quick to discover that something was not quite right about the Ninjago before them.

"Is this… Ninjago?" Kai asked as they looked around. "Everything looks so… new?"

"What's the building in the center?" Jay then wondered, pointing to one of the taller buildings at the city's center.

"According to my records, it should be Borg Tower." came the helpful input from Zane.

"Well, here's hoping that he redecorated in the past five minutes with some sort of holographic technology then."

"Not likely- I have scanned the building and it's infrastructure matches up to what we are seeing it now."

"What _happened_ to Ninjago?" Cole finally demanded right before getting smacked in the face with a newspaper. Letting out a disgusted grumble, Cole ripped the newspaper off his face and started to skim read the headline story. "Apparently there was a power outage last-" he started to note before realizing what was written for the date. "H-hey guys, please tell me the date on here isn't what I think it is..."

The other three immediately huddled around Cole to see the date.

"There's no way."

"It can't be possible!"

"I wondered if this was an outcome, and now I'm sure of it."

The ninja all looked at each other with the same fearful look before going into a full blown panic. They were in the _future_! How did this happen? Why did it happen? _What_ was going on here?!

Zane was the first to come out of his panic when he heard the sound of a familiar falcon cry. Adjusting his peripherals, the Nindroid scanned for the source of the sound. There, coming out from one of the middle floors of Borg Tower, was the figure of a bird Zane was sure he knew. Zane watched with intent as the bird circled around the tower a few times before starting to head in their direction. As predicted, the bird arrived in a minute and perched itself on Zane's outstretched hand. For a moment he and the bird gave each other curious head tilts before the Master of Ice used his other hand to pet it.

"How many times have you been rebuilt, friend?" he curiously muttered to himself. The falcon gave a soft cry before nuzzling its head against his face in reverence. Its call got the other ninjas out of their freak out session, causing them to look at Zane and the falcon instead.

"Zane, what are you doing?" Jay questioned, "We're still supposed to be freaking out about being in the future!"

"Not anymore." the Nindroid cryptically informed them. "I believe it is time once again to follow our falcon friend to our destiny."

Kai, Jay, and Cole gave Zane a funny look before finally realizing that the falcon was there. The robotic looking bird did the same to them then took off into the sky.

"Come," Zane bid the others as he threw up his ninja hood. "Time waits for no ninja." And with that, he went across the rooftops in pursuit of the falcon. Cole and Kai shrugged and followed suit, leaving Jay behind for a moment.

"Okay, but," he whined, "Is anyone else tired of time related shenanigans, or is it just me?" When no one answered, the Master of Lightning gave a bitter sigh as he put up his hood. "Just me then.. Great. Just… _great_."

. . .

Due to its nature, the falcon was able to make it back to Borg Tower before the rest of the ninja. It gave them time to reach the right level in the tall tower, and it gave the falcon time to wake up a certain someone from her – not quite – deep sleep.

"Crow..." Minerva grumbled as she made sleepy attempts to swat at the bird as it nudged her face, "It's still dark out..."

The robotic bird was persistent, continuing to nudge Minerva from her sleep until a doorbell rang throughout the building level. Groaning, the teen started to get up as the bell continued to ring impatiently for someone to open the main door. With its mission accomplished, the falcon transformed itself into a small box that easily fit in Mina's pocket- to which she took without a second thought and stuffed into her bathrobe.

"I'm coming! It's, like, three in the morning- normal people are still sleeping!" she growled at whoever was at the door; whatever they wanted, they sure were desperate to get in at such a late hour. She wasn't even remotely thinking when she allowed the door to open. "I don't know who you maniacs are, but you have got to be freaking nuts to be visiting someone at this ho-" Minerva trailed off when she finally saw who was on the other side of the door; her eyes widened in horror as she glanced from the four of them, then just between two, and then looking one dead in the eye.

"Hello miss," Zane softly said to her, "We were wondering if Cyrus Borg is here?"

Minerva remained in a frozen fear before she slowly started to open her mouth, and released a loud, terrified scream that definitely got the attention of Cyrus- who was working his way over anyway.

"Minerva, what ever is the matter?" the scientist asked before looking over at the visitors. In seeing the ninja (far younger than what they should have been, mind you) even Cyrus grew pale.

"O-oh my..." was all he could say. "It… it's been awhile ninja. Please, do come in and make yourself at home- I'll go make us some tea."

"I'd thought you'd never ask!" Cole gleefully agreed. Mina stepped out of the way enough for the ninja to pass her- as they did, Cole whispered to the others, "What do you think her problem is?"

"I don't know," Jay hissed back, "But whoever did that perm _really_ needs to be fired."

Once the ninja were safely inside, Cyrus Borg carefully looked the still frozen teen before moving closer to her.

"Are you alright Minerva?" he carefully questioned.

"Tell me I'm having a night terror." she said to him. "There's no way this is happening. It… it can't be them."

"Regardless," Cyrus then mused, "I think I'll make you a pot of chamomile while we figure out how the apparent past ninjas are now in our future."

Giving her a calm pat on the arm, Cyrus then left for the kitchen. Minerva remained where she was as her mind reeled in thought. "Future…?" she mumbled to herself before an idea hit her. The teen then let out a small whimper of "No… There's no way…!" before turning on her heel to go back to her room. She barely stopped when she found her phone, stubbing her toe in the process against her bed, before quickly dialing an all too familiar number. It took a few rings, but there was an answer on the other end.

"H-hey Nya." Mina said over the phone. "I know it's really late, but, um… I think I broke something earlier and it's kinda biting me in the butt right now… Can you… can you and Monty come over to Borg Tower, quickly? Please?"

As Nya gave her answer, Minerva didn't notice that she was being spied upon by a certain white ninja. He could only assume that Nya had been confused on the other line, leading the teen girl to dodge some of her explanation what was going on- at the same time, Zane felt that the pieces of their current predicament were all starting to fit together.

**A/N: I'm going to admit, writing this chapter was a bit hard because I'm getting antsy for Zane and Mina's heart to heart. It may not happen for another chapter or two, but it was one of my favorite parts of the original Time Window- Zane will always be a great confidante for the confused Minerva. 'Secret Keeper' is (and always will be) a really great trope to play with. As for the others, Cole (who I absolutely headcanon would be a great dad) would be a bit more stern, Jay would just freak out, honestly, and Mina isn't ready to face Kai for any reason.**

**Wait a minute... is anyone going to comment that Min (and by a lesser extension, Monty) has, like, five dads? xD**

**Regardless, thank you for reading!**


	4. Here we are, in the future

"So we _are_ in the future..." Kai mused in wonder after Cyrus Borg had explained what he knew.

"30 years to the day." the scientist agreed. "What I can't understand is how you managed to bend time itself when there is no method of doing so. The Hands of Time are still lost, along with the Time Blades, so I can't begin to fathom what could..." And that was when Cyrus was hit with a sudden realization. "Unless..."

"Unless?" Zane curiously repeated.

Cyrus then paused for a moment, debating on whether he should tell them or not. He eventually gave in to his own debating with a small sigh.

"Recently, I finished work on a machine I call 'the Time Window.' It is a marvelous invention that allows one to view moments in the past through a non-tangible wormhole and drawing on the Hands of Time's trapped abilities." he explained, hoping that he wasn't losing the ninja's attention too much. "It is possible that with a large enough power implosion, the Time Window could have created a tear large enough in the space-time continuum to force you four into it. But I can't even begin to fathom _how_ it would have malfunctioned in the first place..."

"I think I have an idea." a new voice spoke up. Everyone turned to look at an older woman with black hair cut into a clean bob that could be no one else but-

"Nya!"

The woman gave a smug smirk as she looked at them. From behind her, two teenagers stepped out to make themselves known as well. The first was a boy that stood almost as tall as Nya; his dark colored hair was shaped into a no-nonsense bowl cut that did nothing to hide the fact he wore thick, wire frame glasses. Wearing an argyle sweater vest and pressed ironed dress pants, the dude looked more like a uppity business intern than a kid. The other teen was the girl from earlier- her tightly curled, mousy brown hair looking even more frazzled than before and a hand firmly wrapped about a long pendant.

"Nya!" Cyrus even exclaimed with even greater surprise. "What brings you here?"

"I got a rather confusing call." she replied, motioning toward the female teen who seemed to shrink a little. "Ask my son about it," (she pointed to the male teen this time who didn't even flinch) "And apparently it's something they did."

"How?" Cyrus then asked, giving the two of them a confused look.

"Minerva overloaded the Time Window through overuse." the male teen replied as he pushed his glasses further up on his nose.

"Me?!" the female teen shouted. "You're the one that tried to turn it off when it was obviously unstable!"

"Obviously?" the male (now known at Montgomery) repeated with a snort. "Then why didn't you turn it off earlier?"

"I..." she tried to answer, but the words didn't seem to form. She gave a look at the four ninja before looking away again, giving another, more sullen, "I..."

Nya put a firm hand on the teen's shoulder before turning her attention to the others, "Whoever is to blame for this doesn't matter." To Cyrus, she added, "It was the cause of the power outage last night."

"I think I slept through it..." the scientist sheepishly admitted.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Jay spoke up, interrupting the recap, "If that Montgomery is Nya's kid, then who are _you_?" he questioned before pointing a finger at the female teen. At this, no one seemed to answer. This silence did not go unnoticed before Jay then said, "Does she even have a name?"

Knowing it was a name Jay was looking for, a small sigh escaped from Nya and Cyrus's lips before Nya put both her hands on the teen girl. "This is Minerva." she told them. "She is… a very special kid."

"More like the most unluckiest kid." the teen then grumbled under her breath.

"Sounds like you and Lloyd would get along just swimmingly." Kai then joked, hoping to break the rather dark atmosphere that was starting to surround them. It didn't work very well when Nya then said under her breath;

"You would have no idea."

The silence that followed weighed on them all with an odd feeling of unease. Knowing that someone needed to move on to the next topic of conversation, Zane decided to speak up.

"We do not belong in this time." he told everyone in a plain tone. "How are we to get back?"

"The same way you came through." Montgomery informed him. "We'd have to modify the Time Window a bit for actual time travel- but it shouldn't be that hard of feat. Would it Cyrus?"

"I… _suppose_ it could be done." the scientist carefully agreed. "But it may take some time." He looked to the ninja to add, "And you four should not be seen in public. Never ask why- it's a very complicated answer."

"Then what are _we_ going to do?" Cole questioned.

"Anything you want." Nya playfully told him. "Just don't leave the building."

"Or look up winning lottery numbers." Montgomery chimed in, giving an obvious glare in Jay's direction.

"I could use a hand in repairing the Time Window." Cyrus even offered. "The more help the better."

The four ninja all gave a collective nod to show they understood.

"Hey Cyrus," Cole inquired, "Is the eighteenth floor still an arcade?"

"It sure is." the scientist agreed with a beaming smile. "But be mindful that some of the games there were down there no longer are, or in need of some repair. There are also some new games that you could try out- technology waits behind for no man, after all."

"Sweet!" the black ninja cheered before starting to head out. "Let me know when something exciting happens again!"

"Wait for me!" Kai shouted before going after him. Minerva watched him with a scrutinized eye before turning back to the others.

"I'm going back to bed." she declared. "Wake me up when someone makes banana-hazelnut pancakes."

"Of course my dear." Cyrus agreed. Giving her elders a small nod, Mina wasted no time heading back to the bedrooms. This now left Jay and Zane to decide what they were going to do now.

"Is it alright if I just take a walk around the building?" Zane decided before Jay could say anything. "I promise not to look into information about our future- but I am interested to know what has changed otherwise."

"Then I believe the seventy-ninth floor would be of use to you." Cyrus offered. "I've had it converted to an art gallery in the past year or so- we even managed to get special holographic projectors for interactive pieces."

Zane gave a small smile. "That would be wonderful." he agreed. And with that, he too got up to leave. This now left Jay behind, and knowing he was alone, the blue ninja tried to sneak out with Zane but was immediately stopped by Nya.

"And where do you think _you're_ going?" she teased.

Knowing he had been caught, Jay gave a nervous chuckle before saying, "O-oh you know; join Cole and Kai, order takeout, and maybe even totally avoid helping you fix that not time machine."

"You're not that lucky." Nya chuckled. "Come on, the faster we get it repaired, the faster you four can go home."

Knowing that he had no choice but to help, Jay sagged a bit in defeat. "Aw man..."

. . .

In their time, the seventy-ninth floor was being used as a warehouse of sorts for the assembly line upstairs. As Zane casually strolled around the gallery, the more he came to appreciate that this was the best use of that space. However, it was incredibly obvious that this was a collection curated by Cyrus Borg himself, and not truly designed to be seen by public eyes.

Many of the artwork reflected Cyrus's interest in robotics more than anything else; schematics for the first mass produced Nindroid, photographs that displayed robotic parts in ways to please the eye, and so on. There were other works (notably photographs) that detailed more humble scenery, a possible hint of where Cyrus had started at and how far he had come. Zane found himself smiling at one traditionally painted ink drawing that featured the outline of PIXAL; he looked closer to see how the artist was (to thank them later for capturing his favorite female Nindroid quite beautifully, of course) but was disappointed to find that they had chosen to remain anonymous. The next painting Zane took a bit longer to admire was one done in acrylic paint- it featured the street of a small village with different colored houses, in the middle of the street was a child who appeared to be dancing or running after something, and up in the air not far from the child was an indistinct bird shape. It could have been interpreted as the bird circling the girl in protection, or maybe they were playing a game.

There was something about the girl and the bird that seemed familiar. He looked a bit closer at the painting, hoping that the artist and the work's title could help; it did not. The title of the painting had been called 'A Girl and Her Bird' and the artist was credited as a 'C. Hyun,' but neither of those seemed to ring a bell in Zane's memory. But then, in a sudden moment of realization, a signal that he had received when the falcon had found them; it had told him that it had a new owner, the name of that owner was none other than Minerva.

Minerva…

There was something definitely off when she met the ninja at the door. Her blood pressure had increased while her face had grown pale- surely an indication of fear. But what did she have to fear? The Nya in this timeline seemed to be a friend, and yet during the phone conversation he eavesdropped on, there had been some urgency to Minerva's voice. Zane didn't believe she was the sole reason on their current predicament, but there had to be more to the story. Curious, the Nindroid started to head back to the domestic quarters.

When Minerva had spoke of banana-hazelnut pancakes, surely she meant hazelnut spread? Interesting- he didn't have the recipe in his memory banks, but had a good feeling he could find it elsewhere. What better way to coax a nervous child than with food?

**A/N: Anyone else see the Steven Universe movie? "Here we are in the future; no one to fear, no one to fight. I can't... believe... we've come so far..."**

**I was totally not stalling on this chapter- but, come on, Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu is a season with nothing but filler and actual plot moving eps in every 2 or 3 episodes, so you can afford to cut me some slack too. You can tell the Hageman brother left- that's all I'm saying. I remember when 'The Stone Army' premiered and thinking 'wow, we got a LOT of stuff done this episode' and then (more recently) watching 'Wasted True Potential' and I was like 'wow, this seemed a LOT shorter than the others' before finding out a few eps later that the runtime had been halved. The pacing just seems... odd now. I still like it, but it just feels off, you know?**

**Enough retrospective nitpicking, thank you for reading!**


	5. Of Crows and Crooked Roads

It was the smell that caught her attention before she heard the knock on her door.

"Room service." Zane declared from the other side of the door, trying to be funny. Minerva heard herself unintentionally groan at him. His funny switch had been turned on; great, just great. Despite herself (and probably coaxed by the sweet smell of a well made breakfast), the young teen got herself up and went to open the door. The glare she gave Zane was less than impressed and even a bit annoyed. Even with Zane's helpful smile, Minerva continued to glare as she looked from him, the food, and back up at him again.

"You forgot the bacon." she bluntly informed him.

"I had a feeling that you were not fond of bacon." he then quipped back. "Too much grease."

Minerva raised an interested eyebrow as she weighed her options. "You know, this a trick that Jay would pull to get winning lottery tickets." she then decided to inform him. Zane could only offer a kind smile.

"Then I suppose you could say that I've learned a lot from my brothers."

Forgetting herself for a moment, Mina gave a small, stifled laugh before shaking it off. Very quickly she returned to the matter at hand.

"What do you want?"

"Just to talk." the Nindroid insisted. "Lottery numbers are of no use to me."

Mina gave Zane another suspicious raise of her eyebrow before taking the plate of now cooled pancakes from him. She even bothered to tell him, "Shut the door on your way in," before she herself returned to her previous sitting place. Zane gave another content smile before doing as he was told- from there, he took a moment to appreciate the room.

The room boasted a mostly modern atmosphere with white floors and walls- with the windows reaching from the ceiling to the floor. In the middle was a rather large conversation pit, decorated with a mixture of red cushions and small green pillows. To the right wall was a spiral staircase that led up to a generously sided loft, which in itself held enough space for a queen sized bed at one end and a writing desk at the other. On the left wall was nothing but bookcases filled to the brim with priceless collections of various contemporary writers. It was a beautifully designed room, but something about it didn't indicate to Zane that it had been intended as a bedroom. A study, perhaps, but certainly not a bedroom.

Zane returned his attention to Minerva, just now realizing that she had made her way up to the loft and was hungrily feasting on her meal. This gave him plenty of time to investigate the rest of the area a bit closer- he started with the conversation pit. The cushions were far more plush than what he had anticipated, his whole lower torso sunk into them like quicksand. As he started to fear that he may never be rescued from the memory foam, Zane happened to notice a small black book not far from him. After a bit of effort he was able to get a hold on the book and started to look it over.

The book's glossy black cover lacked any title or author, which seemed odd. It wasn't until he started to leaf through the book's contents that Zane realized that it was someone's personal journal.

"Hey!" Minerva suddenly shouted, apparently finished with her meal, "Don't touch that!" And in a speed so fast, Zane was sure she had slid down the staircase's railing, Minerva rushed to him just to snatch the book from him- she then protectively sat down on the cushions and glared at the white ninja with prejudice.

"I'm sorry if I was skimming through your personal journal..." Zane started to apologize, sitting by her with enough room to offer respect.

Minerva refused to look at him before admitting, "It's not mine. I was told that it was my grandfather's."

"Oh." Zane nodded. There was a small silence that made its way between the two of them. It took awhile, but Zane then curiously asked, "Are you the current operator of the Falcon?"

"The… falcon?" Minerva repeated in confusion, but then it hit her. From her bathrobe (as she had yet to actually get changed), she pulled out a small silver metallic cube. "I call him Crow." she told him, tossing the small cube into the air. At the apex of the toss, the falcon seemed to burst from the cube and gently glided back down to Mina's outstretched hand. The two shared an affectionate forehead press before Mina went on to say, "He was my first friend."

Zane offered a small smile in understanding. He then offered his hand out for the falcon as he tried to sympathize, "He is one of my oldest friends as well." Taking it as its cue, the falcon moved from Minerva's hand to Zane's. The two also shared a moment of comradery before a thought came to Zane.

"Why call him Crow?"

To this, Mina seemed to shift a bit as she debated on telling him the whole story or not. "When I was about 7," she started, "Jay insisted that I learn to play some kind of video game. I wasn't really interested in games- I wanted to learn how to fight."

"And I assume you found a way to spite him?" Zane curiously inquired. Minerva gave a small laugh.

"I picked up point and click adventure games." she admitted. "The kind that were so old that they didn't have guides and the call centers were all down. But there was one game I really clung to; it was about this girl, named after a spring month, who traveled to these dual worlds- one of technology and one of magic. It reminded me of the Sixteen Realms."

Mina gave a small smile at remembering the event, how mad Jay had got and how he couldn't figure out the games when she could. But then she shook her head. "I shouldn't be telling you this." she mumbled to Zane. "Any of it."

"If it is any consideration," Zane informed her, "The path to the future is rarely a straight line. In fact, the future that we see now can possibly be changed when we return to our present; it will not be the future that my brother and I will be able to experience." The Nindroid paused for a moment before going on, "However, I sense a great distress within you; it is as if you carry the weight of the world despite being so young. If it will make you feel better, I will lend an listening ear and – perhaps – make sure we can come back to this conclusion, or create new ones. It is up to you Minerva."

"You're willing to screw up the time stream just so I can be happy?"

"Well, I wouldn't have said it like that- but no, that is not what I intend on doing."

"So you _are_ after winning lottery numbers?"

To this, Zane could not hold back a light chuckle.

"Not today." he playfully mused. "No, if anything, I wish to know more about _you_, Minerva, if that is alright. Along with a sense of responsibility, there is an even greater energy buried deep in your heart, and I am curious as to its origins."

Minerva thought about this for a moment before looking back at Zane with an utterly confused expression. "You want to run psychology experiments on me?"

"No." Zane once more denied, this time with another laugh. "But just talking about your troubles to another is a good way to figure out the steps to overcome them. If you'll allow me, I can pinpoint those troubles and potentially change them. Minerva, I am only requesting to listen if you wish to talk."

The teen gave the Nindroid a different, more skeptic look now. She had no idea what he was even remotely saying or trying to get at, but he sounded so much like the Zane she knew. He just wanted to help. Right? Was that what he was trying to say?

After several minutes of silent debating, Minerva then decided to humor him with, "Fine."

Glad that she was willing to talk, Zane sat a bit taller in full attention. Minerva noticed this and decided to ignore it for a moment as she then wondered what she was going to say first.

"When I was three, I think I used to be able to summon dragons."

"Dragons?" Zane repeated- his surprise had been genuine. Of all things to start a verbal biography with…

Minerva gave a firm nod. "I don't know if it actually happened, or if it was just a dream, but it always seemed so vivid..."

. . .

Several hours passed as Minerva then went on to give her life story to the attentive Nindroid. Zane came to learn that Minerva was orphaned just months after her birth. As she grew, she was cared for by his future self, Cole, Jay, and Kai- with her _actual_ legal guardian being the latter. Despite learning of their careers as ninja, it had been insisted that she never learn how to fight; a detail that brought a lot of tension between her and Kai. He had also found (and wondered if Mina was aware of it) that the falcon had been rebuilt to keep eye on her when the ninja were not around. Her only other connection to the outside world was Nya's son, Montgomery- occasionally nicknamed Monty.

All in all, it was safe to assume that Minerva was a very lonely child.

"Will you really do it?" she asked once most of what she had to say was said. "Would you really change the future just because I said so? So I'm not… not alone? What if some time related thing happens so you don't remember being in the future- how will you know that there's something to change?"

For a moment, Zane was so surprised by the idea of not remembering their adventures here, that he couldn't find an answer.

"Perhaps," he offered, "I will know when the times comes?"

Mina looked at him like a lost child before reaching down to take his hand. Unsure of what she was doing, Zane allowed her to raise his hand up a bit higher and place it against her cheek.

"You're always so warm..." she mumbled, her voice trembling a little. "I miss you guys so much… I just want you to come home."

Offering a small, warm smile, Zane moved his hand to gently run through her hair. It was here that he made a small realization.

"Your hair really _is_ this curly."

Minerva almost laughed so hard that she nearly cried.

"Jay never believes it." she agreed. "Kai used to brush it out for me and then liked to threaten to straighten it all one day. Nya insisted on keeping it curly- gave me personality, or something."

"It does." Zane agreed. "Never change it."

Finally giving a smile of her own, Mina pulled Zane into a tight, well needed, and touch starved hug.

**A/N: I almost didn't think I would make it to 1.5k words on this one, but I wanted to get their conversation out of the way and I'm SO happy on how it turned out! The next chapter will focus on Jay, and later chapters will focus on Kai and Cole separately.**

**I'd like to think that Zane is the dad you pour your heart out too, Cole is the dad that does something about it, Kai is the dad that won't let anything bad happen to you, and Jay is the dad that should probably still be the kid. xD It's just a thought, anyway.**

**All the good things being said, I'm sorry to say that this story will go into hiatus. I haven't written anything in two weeks because I've been bouncing back and forth between the fandoms I lurk. So please, during this time, leave some feedback! This fandom is still the most active of all the others I participate in, so please lend me some of your wisdom!**

**Thank you for reading!**


	6. Cruel

The idea of repairing the Time Window seemed like a good thought at first, but then you came to realize how overwhelming it would be to even start. Where could you even _begin_ with a contraption such as this?

"Now, let's start from the beginning." Cyrus offered. "What caused the Time Window to give a sudden burst of energy?"

Instead of answering right away, Monty gave an annoyed sigh as he slightly adjusted his glasses. "My story has not changed." he told Cyrus, sounding just as bitter. "Minerva had the Time Window working for over an hour before I joined her. After that, it must have been another hour before I remembered you saying that the Time Window can not operate for long periods of time. Minerva and I fought at the main console for less than two minutes. What buttons we pressed or levers we pulled are not something I can remember easily- we immediately stopped at the power inflection and went to bed without further investigating. There is nothing else to tell, Cyrus."

"Hmm..." Cyrus thoughtfully hummed to himself as he moved his wheelchair from Monty, Nya, and Jay. "Two hours (perhaps even five, if we're being generous) is hardly enough time for the generator to gather enough heat to repel the excess energy. When I gave that warning; I meant in the time frame of a good day or so, not half a night."

"Well, _apparently_," Jay interjected with a scoff of his own, "It must have overheated a lot faster than you thought it would."

"Perhaps..." Cyrus agreed, "But even then, there would have been greater signs of overheating. And there are none. None that we've found so far, at the very least."

"So, assuming that it _was_ enough," Nya then questioned, "It still wouldn't be enough to force a wormhole, would it?"

"No." came Cyrus's immediate answer. "This surge would not have caused enough power on its own. We would have needed a second wave, perhaps placed in a future point in time, to make this first more potent. But when could that have happened...?"

No one was able to answer him, leaving the question as a rhetoric. Completely despising the lull of conversation, Jay gently nudged Nya a bit.

"H-hey Nya," he quietly said to her, "Can I talk to you alone?"

"Sure!" she agreed without a moment's hesitation. The duo excused themselves and went out to the hallway. Unlike the room where the Time Window sat, the lighting in the hallway was a bit dark and not at all a place to stay in for too long, And yet, Jay was just now getting to see all the signs of age of Nya's face, and realizing that he still loved her all the same. Jay could see that Nya had faint signs of crow's feet along her eyes, and her once jet black hair was starting to gray in certain areas.

"What's up?" she asked him in that same, bubbly voice. Jay couldn't help himself from smiling before shaking his head.

"Look Nya, as riveting as trying to repair this thing is going..."

"It is kinda dull, isn't it?"

"I just gotta know; what happened to us?"

Suddenly, Nya visibly froze. She then put on a wide, fake smile before asking, "W-what would make you think that something happened to you guys?"

"Nya, please," Jay snorted. "I may be Jay and occasionally a moron, but that doesn't mean I'm a moron _all_ the time. When Kai brought up Lloyd, everyone went silent like something bad had happened. Also, there's no way our future selves wouldn't be here if you're able to. Not to mention the fact that that kid screamed at us when she saw us. I mean, who_ does_ that?"

"Mina screamed at you?" Nya repeated, amused if only for a moment.

"Right?! Isn't that weird to you? Something's up."

"Jay," Nya started to say, faltered for a moment, then started back up again, "I can't tell you."

This was not enough for the stubborn Jay. Instead he got down on his knees and begged. "Please Nya! You don't have to say everything, just enough to… oh, I dunno, make sure that we're not totally hopeless causes or something."

To Jay's horror, Nya shrunk a little. "Jay, I… You're missing."

"What am I missing, Nya? What?"

"No, you idiot. You and the other ninja? You're missing, as in, we can not find you no matter how hard we try."

Suddenly, Jay jumped to his feet with a horror stricken expression. "How?"

"I can't say."

"Yes you can."

"No, I can't."

Then a sudden idea came across Jay's mind, and before he could stop himself, he blurted out, "If we're missing, then why aren't you?"

Nya gave Jay a horrified stare, her face quickly paling in the poor light. She was so in shock she could only get out a small, "What?" in horror. Jay found himself recoiling at her reaction.

"You're part of the team." he told her. "If we went missing, then why didn't you? You're the Master of Water! Where were you when we went missing Nya?"

"I..." the woman stuttered. Her feet were trying to shuffle backward, but the rest of her seemed frozen in place. "I..." All of her words seemed to fail her as Nya tried to find some answer, something that couldn't give away any details but sating his curiosity. In one last final bid, she admitted, "I… I'm not the Master of Water anymore."

"What?!" Jay all but shouted. For some reason, this wasn't the answer he had been expecting, and it showed. "Why?!"

"I had a son." she told him, simply enough. "And he inherited my elemental power."

And, in that moment, everything started to sink in for Jay.

"What… happened?" he asked one last time.

"Jay, I really can't say." Nya admitted for the last time as well. "I want to. Believe me when I say I want to so _badly_ Jay, but I can't. I can't risk telling you in case in changes the past. Just knowing that our son exists could change the past. Please understand, I can't."

Jay let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in until now. "I understand." he agreed. "Know that whatever happened, I still love you."

Nya gave a small smile. "I know, Jay. I know."

. . .

Just months prior, he had said the exact same thing to her; almost in the exact same voice too. All the preparations were finished and all the remaining ninja needed to do was give their goodbyes. At Kai behest, their castoff was to be at the docks. The Destiny's Bounty was ready to leave the moment the four ninja boarded her; but it did not mean that the ninja themselves were ready to leave yet.

"Know that whatever happens, I still love you." Jay told Nya, pressing his forehead against hers.

"I know." she admitted. "But it doesn't make it any easier."

"Make sure Mont keeps up on his training? He's so close to earning his true potential, I can feel it."

"Of course I will. He's a lot like me, though, it's hard for him to give up."

The two shared a fond laughter at the thought. Not far from them was Zane and PIXAL, having a similar discussion of their own.

"In the event that you do not make it back," PIXAL carefully told Zane, "I plan on reactivating her. Perhaps changing a few parameters so she isn't so… uncanny. I really do not want that to be a possibility- is that wrong?"

"No." Zane softly disagreed. "I do not wish for it to be a possibility either. But… I have fears."

PIXAL gave a small nod to show she understood before looking around the room. There was Nya and Jay, of course, and closer to the Bounty was Cole and Kai. Cole was going over some of the Bounty's communications systems with Cyrus Borg and Montgomery. Kai looked as though he was composing some sort of letter, his hand nervously combing through his hair. PIXAL looked back at Zane with a frown.

"Why is he not telling her of your departure in person?"

"I do not know." Zane admitted. "Minerva is a smart child, she will find out eventually."

"But how soon is 'eventually'?" PIXAL rebutted with a frown. For this, Zane found that he could not give a straight answer.

"I guess this is it." Jay announced as he and Nya walked about to the nindroids. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Zane agreed. With that said, the four of them went to the others.

"Everything should be good to go." Cyrus informed them with a grin. "Just remember, the moment you four get into trouble, set off the emergency beacon and find safe ground immediately."

"_Immediately_." Montgomery repeated with a grimace. This was some how the cue for everyone to glare at Kai. He refused to acknowledge anyone or even look up. Of anyone, Nya was the most annoyed by it- she immediately walked up to her brother and put a hand on his shoulder. She squeezed it, almost a bit too tight, before forcing him to look her in the eye.

"If something happens to you guys, I'll never forgive you." Nya told him- her tone dark and filled with a deep-seated warning. "Neither will she."

For a moment, Kai hesitated. This conversation seemed too eerily similar- he almost had to hide the fact that a cold chill ran down his spine.

"I wouldn't expect you to." he replied before starting to head into the Bounty. But a single voice stopped everyone in their tracks.

"What's going on?"

Everyone turned their attention to see a rather frazzled Minerva Florence. Her hair seemed to be more frizzed that usual, and her expression was an anger born from fear. Slowly, carefully, Kai approached the girl like one would approach a snake posed to strike.

"Why aren't you at dance practice?" he calmly asked her.

"Because my instructor is right there." Minerva instantly rebutted, pointing a quick finger at Cole. "So I decided to go home. Guess what? No one was there."

"Mina..." Kai tried to say, but he was instantly silenced by the teen holding up her hand, signaling for him to shut up and let her talk. Because of his guilt, he let her continue.

"Then I go to Borg Industries- you know, because Cyrus invited me for a 'very important request' earlier, but he wasn't there either. You want to know what Annabeth told me? She said that he was here, out by the docks, with the ninja. Can you believe it? After years of the ninja being 'retired,' they suddenly have a mission that requires meeting Mr. Borg at the docks. How funny is that?"

"Min..."

"I want answers!" Minerva demanded as she stomped her foot on the ground. "Why are you lying to me?!"

"No one's lying to you."

Every fiber of Minerva's body shook as she questioned, "Then where are you going?"

"It's… complicated." Kai admitted. He tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but the girl quickly rebuffed him.

"No, it's not." she argued. "Just tell me. You… You're acting like you're going to..." And that was when something in her mind clicked. She quickly looked around the room before looking at Kai again, staring at him with more scorn than before. "You honestly don't think he's alive, do you?"

No one answered her. In this silence, Minerva started to back away from them.

"You… you wouldn't." she mumbled, more to herself than everyone else. "You may never come back. What if he's already…? You can't do this!"

Once more, Kai tried to move toward her. "Mina," he tried to plead, "We're only trying to protect..."

"I don't need to be protected!" the child screamed. "I hate you! I hate all of you!" And in a complete fury, Minerva ran from the docks. In her wake, everyone went into a tense silence.

"One of us should go after her..." PIXAL quietly suggested, but no one dared to move.

Eventually, Kai -still hoping that Minerva would come back so he could better explain- hung his head in a sullen defeat before heading back to the Destiny's Bounty. As he passed the others, he mumbled a small, "We leave as soon as possible." and boarded onto the ship.

. . .

"Mother, I brought you some tea."

Nya almost jumped out of her skin in hearing her son's voice. After seeing her son with a mug of tea in his hand, she gave him a small smile.

"Thank you Monty." she thanked, taking the mug from him. She didn't even bother waiting for the tea to cool off before taking a long, meditative sip. When she had her fill, Nya set the cup down in front of her to face her son.

"You know," she mused, "No one ever went after Mina."

Montgomery raised an eyebrow before realizing what his mother was talking about. He seemed to recoil a bit at the thought. Talking as if he were speaking more of a thought, he said, "It's not like we really had to. She carries the Falcon around as often as she does her pendant. We could have tracked her to the First Realm if we had really wanted to."

"Did she ever go home that night? To Midori Blaise, at least."

"Not that I'm aware of."

Nya gave a small nod at this before taking another long sip of tea. "I really hope they found him." she rasped for a moment. "No, I _believe_ they found him."

"But you don't believe they'll come back?"

Mother and son exchanged a silent glace between themselves. Nya took another swing of her tea before telling him, in almost dead certainty, "Not without help."

**A/N: Is anyone still out there? It's been months! The worst part about this fic and its original was trying to describe how the Time Window would be fixed, but this time, I got past most of it! Well, sorta. But now I'm back to the timeline I have set up.**

**The flashback was something I added because I hoped it would get me through this chapter, along with giving some context on what happened to the ninja. It was given outright in the original, but so far the rewrite hasn't really said anything about it. The flashback was also supposed to feature the moment they lost communication with the ninja, but this chapter ended up pretty long (2,318 words!) so I ended up not doing it. Maybe next chapter, since I mostly only have it planned for Mina and Monty to talk a bit before messing with the Time Window again.**

**Who knows. Send me your thoughts, even if it so happens that you exist in the future where this fic was finally finished.**

**Thank you for reading!**


	7. The Second Blackout

If she leaned any closer on the railing, she was sure to fall head first into the street below. A part of her really wanted to do it. Maybe everything that's happened in the past year was all just a dream? Maybe if she just… let go, everything would go back to the way it was? Her pendant was freely dangling under her now- one bad tilt of her head and it would succumb to gravity.

What stopped her from going further was the firm hand on her shoulder, purposely pulling her back.

"If you're going to purposely harm yourself, then at least do it where none of us can see you." the calm, firm voice of Monty informed her.

Minerva only gave him a small glance from over her shoulder before telling him, "I'm not trying to hurt myself. I just needed to get some air."

"And you're only catching the downdraft; the prevailing wind typically comes from the other side of the building."

"Thanks Monty." came the sarcastic retort.

"Of course." he replied, possibly ignoring her tone. "Someone has to make sure you're not giving up yet."

The teenager grimaced for a moment before looking back over the protective railing. It was too late to do anything drastic now- she'd never admit it, but Monty was good for grounding her to the task at hand. It was something that came from growing up with each other.

"I came up here to find you because we're ready to test the Time Window again." Monty informed her. "I was going to say that you didn't have to come, but since you seemed so dangerously fascinated in looking at traffic..."

"I'm coming." Minerva told him with a wave of his hand. Monty didn't seem so reassured, so Mina linked her arm in his and looked up at him. Her adoptive cousin raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything against it. Together, they headed back inside Borg Tower and to the room where the Time Window was kept.

Apparently, they had been the last ones to regroup. Cyrus and Nya were over by the Time Window's console, Zane was admiring the construction of the Time Window's portal viewer, Kai and Cole seemed to be in a heated debate about whatever game they had been playing before, and Jay had been restlessly standing by the door.

"There you are!" Jay exclaimed as the duo came through the door. Monty and Mina gave each other a quick glance before unhooking their arms, leading Monty to give Jay his full attention.

"Did something unexpected happen?" Monty immediately asked. Jay immediately shook his head, and was about to say something, but was stopped by Nya shouting,

"Hey Montgomery! Get your wonderful nerd brain over here and help us finalize these calculations!"

"Coming." Monty immediately agreed.

Now being left alone with each other, Jay and Minerva gave each other awkward smiles before Mina moved away. She found a quiet corner that no one else was occupying and hid in its shadow. From there, she was able to see what everyone else was doing. It still wasn't much- the anticipation for the Time Window to be reactivated was starting to make the air tense.

"Alright!" Cyrus suddenly announced. "Everyone take a step back from the wormhole generator and prepare for a bright light!"

"How come I don't feel comforted by that warning?" Jay mumbled to himself.

"At least we get one." Kai thoughtfully decided.

At the Time Window's console, Cyrus, Nya, and Montgomery all gave each other nods of agreement before starting the machine's activation sequence. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then Cyrus pulled a level that lead a more powerful jolt of electricity to course through the machine, effectively making several instruments on the main console to come to life.

It was the combined efforts of Nya and Montgomery that the Time Window's portal viewer started to activate. There was a small reaction at first, almost like a dusting of sparks, before the Time Window's viewer suddenly emitted a bright light- nearly everyone looking in that direction had to shield their eyes in reaction. A few moments after, something started to be seen through the bright light. Cyrus saw this for himself and started to further adjust certain perimeters in the system; the image in the Time Window was starting to get clearer.

"It's working!" Cyrus happily declared. Instead of outright celebrating, everyone let out a long sigh of relief. Unfortunately, it was short lived. The Time Window's viewer started to lose the image, and was once more replaced with the white light. Small sparks were starting to come off the viewer now as well- they only seemed to become more frequent the brighter the light became.

"No," Monty informed them, in a voice trying very hard not to panic, "It's overloading."

When the truth dawned onto Cyrus, he immediately started to get back to the console. "Quickly!" he instructed Nya and Monty, "We have to redirect the power before it gets too unstable!"

"I have a feeling that it _might_ be a little late for that." Nya interjected, her fingers flying on the console as she entered different commands.

Meanwhile, the others were buckling down for an explosion they couldn't stop. For the most part, Cole, Kai, and Jay had tried to migrate closer to the Time Window's console; either to hopefully duck behind it when the viewer combusted, or to protect their friends when parts starting flying everywhere. The only ones who remained where they were was Minerva and Zane. Zane seemed less concerned on the Time Window itself, and more to study what Mina was going to do.

The girl was frozen in place. A white light may have engulfed the viewer, but there was still something moving from within. Worst of all, it was calling out to her.

"Mina..." a voice called out to her. "My beautiful little girl..."

To her, the white light gave way a little to see the figure inside. She could see a male with platinum blonde hair windswept to the side, glowing green eyes that held a gentle undertone, a white silk gi adorned with green sashes, and a fond smile that nearly gave Mina the urge to cry. She could only venture to guess, but something told her that this was her father; Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon.

Perhaps he knew this, knew that she had a hard time believing that it was him. His hand was reaching out to her, beckoning her to move forward. "Connect the pieces Mina." Lloyd urged. "Come find me."

With her feet almost moving on autopilot, Minerva started to walk toward the illusion. The closer she was, the more Lloyd seemed to smile and welcome her to him. Just as they were about to touch each other's hands, someone shouted, "Minerva, get down!" and without her consent, Minerva was tackled out of the way. It was not a moment later that the Time Window released one last surge that rippled from Borg Tower to all of Ninjago. Ninjago's power was once more knocked out for the second time that week.

"Well…" Cyrus mumbled, "Now we can confirm the source of that larger burst of energy..."

It was Cole who instantly replied with a sarcastic, "No kidding."

Mina blinked as she came out of her surprise tackle induced daze- only faintly aware that her tackler was now helping her stand up.

"Are you alright?" they asked, not truly bothering to hide their worry. It was then that Mina looked up to see Zane there- the past Zane, not the Zane she knew.

"I..." she started to say, but couldn't finish. The girl sunk to her knees as she continued to sputter, "I… I..."

In the confusion of the Time Window's second implosion, no one noticed her and Zane at first. It was Kai who happened to turn around to see them there.

"Guys," he said to the others, "The kid doesn't look so hot."

Instantly, Nya, Cyrus, and Montgomery turned around. It was Monty that reacted first, going over to her and Zane's side. Nya was the next one to come over, but it was to Zane that she questioned,

"Is she alright?"

"I can not answer that." Zane replied. Everyone then turned their attention to Minerva and waited.

"I saw him." she spoke- more to herself than the others. "I… I saw Lloyd." Mina held up her hands and stared at them. They had been so close to touching… "He was… waiting. He wanted me to…?"

"I thought Lloyd was lost?" Cole questioned. "How could you have seen him?"

"Could have been a past version of him." Nya reminded him.

"But why didn't any of us see it?" Kai then wondered, raising a skeptic eyebrow.

"Perhaps she saw him because they were related?" Cyrus mused.

Amid the speculation, Monty and Zane were solely focused on Mina. She was still absently looking at her hands. She had been close. She could have sworn she could have felt his body heat… Distantly, she could just barely make out Monty's voice talking to her.

"Min, what did Lloyd tell you to do?"

"He… he said to… to connect the pieces."

"What pieces?" Jay interjected, causing the three of them to look up at him. Apparently, everyone was looking at the three of them now. Mina looked at Jay in particular- her eyes not quite focused on him, as if she was trying to remember who he was.

"I don't know." she admitted.

"Of course!" Cyrus suddenly declared, causing everyone to look at him. "It wasn't a power issue, it was a focusing issue!"

For a moment, everyone just stared at the older man as if he had lost his marbles. But then Montgomery came to the same conclusion.

"That makes perfect sense." he agreed.

"It does?" Cole, Jay, Nya, Zane, and Kai all questioned at the same time, with various degrees of confusion.

"It does." Cyrus informed them. "You see, we were focused on making sure the Time Window had the proper power input. What we didn't focus on was that idea that the Time Window itself could need an anchor point to locate your proper timeline."

"Which means… what, exactly?" Kai inquired.

"It means," Montgomery supplied as he started to get up, "We may need to find objects that are further bound to the point in time that you came from. The disc for the video game you played the most, for example, or something you created by hand that you just recently finished. Anything personal you spend a lot of time with."

"Oh, I kinda get it now." Jay quipped. "Something like mine and Nya's Yin-Yang medallions?"

"Or my favorite cake eating fork!" Cole agreed.

"Maybe something a bit more specific than a fork…" Monty disagreed, pretending to push his glasses back onto his nose.

"Wouldn't that mean that we'd have to leave Borg Tower?" questioned Kai. "I thought we couldn't."

"I believe that it is time for the ends to justify the means." Cyrus replied. "We won't let you go alone, of course, and it would be wise to split into separate groups to compile the objects faster. We can decide who will go with who once we figure out what object you ninja find more personal."

"I wish to stay with Minerva." Zane immediately decided. No one opposed him, and no one had any reason to.

"But will finding these objects even work?" Nya asked Cyrus.

"We won't know until we try." came the less than reassuring answer. "Now, does anyone have any questions, comments, or concerns?"

The seven of them all looked at each other before looking back at Cyrus.

"Yes."

"Of course."

"Oh buddy, where do I even start?"

**A/N: We've reached the halfway point! Well, kinda. I have about 4-5 more chapters planned, so it's not a perfect halfway point, but we're definitely going to get past the point the original Time Window ended. The next chapter will (hopefully) center around Cole more.**

**Even though this story is _pretty_ much about Minerva, I am trying to focus on the other ninja at the same time. It's hard. Focusing on too many characters at a time is hard.**


End file.
